When you see the below video, you kind of feel its an open and shut case. A customer was recording the sorry state of a CCD outlet and a lunatic employee who had no business interacting with humans decides to slap him. One would assume the coffee chain would apologize, fire the employee for conduct unbecoming of their employee and life would go on. Except that it is India ! In a twist akin to Bollywood movies, the coffee chain files a false molestation case against the customer, refuses to apologize publically and tries to use the fake case as a bargaining chip(allegedly) to get the customer to withdraw his original case against the coffee chain. I can see a Bollywood movie being written on this case (Cafe Cockroach Day).

However its not funny folks. A publicly listed company is involved here and their lawyer allegedly asked the boy to take back the complaint to remove the FIR. With such clear video evidence, the police is still proceeding to arrest him on the molestation charges and the boy’s life and future is in jeopardy. Meanwhile CCD’s employee’s (Priyanka Priyadarshini) story goes something like this :

“Around 1pm on March 12, Verma and another person came to the café and ordered coffee and some beverages. When I told them that only coffee was available as the branch near Hawa Mahal was temporary, they got angry and Verma called me a slut and bitch,” the woman said.

“They returned after 20 minutes and started taking the video of cockroaches in the café. They also focused their camera on me despite my objection. I tried to grab the camera and in the process the mobile phone fell down from Verma’s hand,” she wrote in her complaint.

Now there is no way to ascertain if the 1st sentence is correct, it remains he said, she said. However the second sentence is clearly a lie. She slapped him, plain and simple, no she was not grabbing the camera, and she herself was recording him. Even if the 1st sentence is deemed to be correct, is calling someone a bitch or a slut a crime that merits arrest ? In the video, the person making the video seems to be talking calmly and respectfully to the employee so it seems less likely she was telling the truth. Also CCD has not released any video CCTV footage and neither has the employee was was also seen recording on her phone and then getting outraged when he proceeded to record her face.

So what can we do ?

I believe all of us have a responsibility here , there is nothing CCD loves more than their bottomline and their topline, so to make them do something you have to hit them where it hurts the most.

Continue boycott of CCD outlets, I am not saying goto a competitor, but pledge not to goto CCD. They will notice the footfall drop.

Write to Cafe Coffee Day customer care asking them to withdraw the case and apologize for the incident. Say that you are scared that they will slap a fake case against you and give you cockroach coffee.

Engage in social media and use hashtags such as #BoycottCCD to put more pressure onto the coffee outlet to do the right thing.

Delete and uninstall their apps on your phones and write a review which talks about this incident and your feelings about the same.